Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1983 (11. évfolyam, 35-38. szám)
1983 / 35-36. szám
ARTICLES & PAPERS (Continued) International Society for European Ethnology and Folklore, Moscow. 30 SEP 82 to 6 OCT 82. (mimeo) 1981 a “Narration and Memory.” Fabula 22:3/4 (1981) 281 -289. 1981b “A Case Study of Adaptation in Folk Narrative: Tolstoy’s Tale in Hungarian Oral Tradition,” Studia Fennica 26 (1981) 35-48. 1981c “Belief System, Worldview, and Mythology.” In Congress Quartus Internationalis Fenno-Ugristarum, Budapest 1975, Vol. 4 ed by Gyula Ortutay (Budapest: Akadémiai kiadó', 1981) pp. 129-133. 1979 “Mother and Child in Hungarian Folklore: An Ethnosemiotic Approach to the Study of Belief-System.” In Communicationes de História Artis Medicináé (Orvostudományi közlemények) Budapest: Medicina könyvkiadó, 1979) Hoppál has provided us with five of his recent publications in the English language. The articles deal with a number of current topics discussed by folklorists on the international scene: ethnosemiotics, ethnomedicine, folklorism and methods and analyzing oral tradition. Of particular interest to those studying the Hungarian diaspora will be his references to the components and the nature of ethnic identity (1982 and 1981a). He surveys and lists the definitions of the terms “folk,” “folklore,” “folklorism,” then cites some examples of contemporary folklore, more specifically the new folklore of the industrial and socialist society (folk art, dance house and folk dance movement, rumors and jokes, newspaper folklore). He addresses the difficulty of distinguishing between contemporary folklore and folklorism today, due to the revival and incorporation of old folk customs into our modern lives. Concerning the question of ethnic identity the author says that “folklorism and folklore can, almost to the same extent, serve the symbolic expression of ethnic identity, even if one is manipulated and the other is not” (1982). Interrelated concepts of the preservation and renewal of culture in our everyday lives surface on many levels from airport and souvenir art through the highest level of ethnoart (Brancusi, Vasarely, Aitmatov and Bartók), and these all constitute the continuity and preservation of ethnic folklore. The oral tradition in folklore is a topic closely related to that of ethnic and cultural identity. The author offers a “sound basis for the description of the narrative process involved in the production, comprehension and retrieval of folk narrative texts“ (1981a). This paper reviews the physiological aspects of the narrative process (the brain), and the not visible feature (memory). Hoppal applies linguistic analysis (discourse analysis and text analysis) to unveil the hidden aspects of a narrative text. The article also offers a short survey of research done on memory in the 20th century, and employs the formula of macro-structures in narrative analysis. The author concludes emphasizing the two types of memory — short term memory and long term memory —and determines that as a rule culture retains all the necessary information for its identity. The third article (1981b) is a textual study of a Tolstoy story told by an old Hungarian man. The story was related and recorded twice, first in April of 1970, thqn in May of 1972. The article contains the bulk of the recordings, allowing the reader to compare the form and content of the two stories. Hoppal studies and analyzed the two texts and concluded that the essential elements of the original story were present in both versions. Obvious “Hungarianization’’of the tale took place, thus, an adaptation of the text by the story teller is 8 evident. The author summarizes this portion of his study with the following: “Culturally familiar, acceptable, and comprehensible motifs are more easily memorized than their opposites, they do not so easily fall out of the collective memory. This process is much slower than one thought.. .especially those types of information which have relevance to ethnic identity. . .The author discusses and defines the concept of “Belief-system” and “worldview” in the fourth article (1981c). (see HSN no. 30, p. 4). He reemphasizes the function and importance of linguistic analysis in the study of oral tradition in folklore. The fifth article (1979) offers an introduction to Hungarian ethnomedicine through the survey of mother and child relationship in the belief system. The author begins with a semiotic approach to the subject mentioning renowned names in the field, and offers as background a brief survey of particular studies and data on mother-child relationships in Hungarian folk tradition. Specific examples on midwifery, folk healing, superstitions, folk abortives and illnesses such as St. Anthony’s fire, and epilepsy collected by folklorists are cited. An extensive list (138 texts) of Hungarian beliefs concerning mother-child relationship and sicknesses collected by the author himself during the course of his research concludes this paper. (SMN) □ Racz, Barnabas A. “The Institutional Growth of Enterprise Democracy in the Hungarian Political System” East Central Europe 8:1/2(1981) 1-22. The complex process of managing enterprises with the involvement of three power factors (management, workers’ union, and party) has been in the forefront of debates related to economic change and cost-effectiveness. All three factors aim at an operative balance between economic and political variables. In recent years there has been an economic retrenchment with some political reform. However, enterprise democracy has shown only moderate success. “Workers exhibit both indifference and ignorance; their ability to effectively participate is hindered by political apathy and relatively low level of knowledge.” All three actors cautiously guard their power base, and are anxious to trim what is conceived as excessive and unjustified acquisition of power by others. Most sensitive to changes in power distribution is the party, which in reality influences union elections and thus the actual perimeters of the stewards’ power. “Since genuine political pluralization is rejected by the Party, the only open way for the broadening of the political base is the cautious modification of the system.” According to the author, “the revitalized unions might fulfill a quasiopposition role in the future, a Party-controlled ‘loyal opposition.’ ” The author is asoc. prof, at Eastern Michigan U. □ Racz, Barnabas A. “The Twelfth Communist Party Congress and the Politics of Neo-Conservatism in Hungary.” East Europan Quarterly 15:4 (January 1982) 511-537. The 12th Congress declared faith in the ideology and in the main thrust of the party, but criticized the process of implementation. The party remains the sole dispenser of power. Its membership has increased somewhat but the strength of its reliable nucleus is difficult to estimate. “The findings of this study indicate a fundamentally conservative line of policy by the Kadar regime. . .The political and economic institutions underwent considerable but not decisive transformation. These achievements are the central concern of the party today; the MSZMP adopted these changes as part of a new status quo but also committed itself against further significant reforms and therefore Hungarian NO. 35-36, SPRING-SUMMER 19Ö3 HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER
